Sheep’s liver

Haruspicy was a big deal in many ancient societies. Just how serious these people were about divination through careful examination of animal entrails? Take a look at this object. This is an Etruscan bronze model of a sheep’s liver. You can just imagine it being passed around in a classroom at an ancient college of priests. The Romans likely got their version of haruspicy from the Etruscans, along with many other unpleasant and violent customs. There must be similar objects out there, but with Latin inscriptions, because this thing is pretty useless to us — the language of the Etruscans remains largely undecoded.